Search watoday:

Search in:

Phones out for 60,000-plus after fire hits exchange

Stephen Cauchi

Phone services in southwestern Victoria will be disrupted for days following a fire that hit Warrnambool's telephone exchange at 4.30am on Thursday morning.

Tesltra spokesman James Howe said both Telstra landline and mobile services in the areas around Warrnambool, Portland, Hamilton and Camperdown would be affected.

Mr Howe said about 60,000 landline phones would be affected, along with all Telstra mobile services.

Mr Howe said emergency phone services – triple-0 and 112 – had already been restored to mobile phones. Normal voice calls, and mobile email and internet in particular, would take much longer.

Advertisement

"For full restoration of all the services, we could be talking a number of days, in all honesty," he said.

He said a mobile exchange on wheels was being brought down from Melbourne to assist and technicians were busy trying to fix the exchange.

"Technicians are working through the exchange to see what suffered the most damage – landline or mobile or a combination of the two. It's difficult to see what's going to take longer to restore.

"We expect that with things like mobile we might expect to get voice calling back up, but you might not be able to have access to the internet or email."

Banks are warning that ATM and EFTPOS facilities in the area may not be working as a result of the phone blackout.

They are urging customers to visit branches in person for their transactions.

Banks have also warned that wait times for tellers may be longer than normal.

Five Country Fire Authority fire units from Ballarat, Koroit and Warrnambool were called to the exchange in Koroit Street just after 4.30am, with the fire taking about 90 minutes to bring under control.

The fire's cause is being investigated.

A CFA spokeswoman said that residents in the Casterton region – where the CFA is battling bushfires – could be affected by the phone disruption.

However, she said that all residents would be able to call emergency numbers.

Both police and Telstra have requested that residents only phone triple zero if urgent assistance is required.They have also asked that people only personally attend police stations or hospitals if triple zero is not available.

Temporary phone lines are been made available for Warrnambool Police Station (0481 389 783), Hamilton Police Station (0481 387 374) and Portland (0457 540 006).

Local councils will contact people on the vulnerable persons register who they believe may be adversely affected, said police. Residents are urged to check on their neighbours and elderly residents to ensure their welfare.

Telstra, meanwhile, will distribute satellite phones to people with a serious medical condition who are registered on their priority customer list.

The State Emergency Service 132 500 number, however, is not available in the impacted areas. Some V-Line passenger and freight services are experiencing delays.

Optus has advised that their mobile phone service is operating and the majority of landlines are working. Water, power and gas services have not been impacted.